The “Summer of Arbitration” continues. In this edition, I focus on four big recent cases from the Second Circuit.  One vacated an arbitrator’s certification of a class action.  A second refused to vacate an award, despite an allegation of perjury.  And the last two relate to nearly 1.7 billion dollars worth of international arbitration awards.  (Although I refuse the designation of “flyover country” for my beloved Midwest, I do have to acknowledge that the New York courts get much sexier arbitration cases than we do, and more of them.)

With all the buzz about class action waivers in arbitration clauses (and the CFPB trying to end their use in the financial industry), it is easy to forget that it is possible for class actions to go forward in arbitration.  In Jock v. Sterling Jewelers, Inc., 2017 WL 3127243 (2d Cir. July 24, 2017), the arbitrator certified a class of plaintiffs that included “absent” class members.  The district court concluded that it was “law of the case” that the arbitrator had the necessary authority to do that, based on a 2011 decision from the Second Circuit in the same matter.  However, the Second Circuit found that the district court misunderstood – it had only ruled that the arbitrator had authority to determine whether some class arbitration was permissible – but had not ruled on the question of whether individuals who had not expressly opted into the class could be part of the class.  So, this case goes back to the district court; a continuation of its seven-year class action purgatory.

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